Red
May 29, 2009 Posted by Eva at 2:28 pm
Norway’s Datarock have returned with the follow up to the geek-chic party album of 2005, Datarock Datarock. Their debut mixed Happy Mondays punk-funk with warped Devo humour, and was well received locally with Computer Camp Love landing #12 on Triple J’s Hottest 100.
Red has lost none of Fredrik Saroea and musical partner Ketil Mosnes’ aptitude for so-classic-you-must-haveheard- it-before hooks, but this follow-up is an altogether more concept-driven beast. For example, lead single Give it Up was actually an idea for a music video before it became a song, paraphrasing Beat It, Bad, West Side Story, and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film Romeo & Juliet.
As an album, Red is a thoroughly unashamed love-letter to the influences that made Datarock what they are today. DEVO, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Talking Heads, Haruki Murakami, Don Delilo’s White Noise, Scott Walker, the works of John Hughes and Peter Greenaway, and even Molly Ringwald (in the song Molly) are all referenced. Pop cultural fluff that is meaningful because invoking them now as adults is a sharp reminder from a more innocent time that we should ALWAYS be having more fun than we are right now.
But Red is not all nostalgic longing. Datarock are just as interested in this day and age, expressed through their love-hate relationship with technology and communication. On The Pretender, Fredrik announces he is, “In love with my avatar!”, before reeling off a list of the multiple duplicitous identities available to him online – North Korean? South American? Presbyterian? The Blog, meanwhile, is an attempt by these technology-fetishists to romanticise the early utopian promise of the Internet, before it became something that people just took for granted and got annoyed by. It’s total retrofuturism.
Red isn’t just a socio-political tract about the fluid nature of identity in the Internet age. It’s also a eulogy for nostalgia. It’s an abstract notion in an era of instant data retrieval. And it’s the party album of 2009!
Datarock will be touring nationally in June.
Album Red is out now on etcetc. Buy it from iTunes or JB Hi-fi.
Tracklisting:
1. The Blog
2. Give It Up
3. True Stories
4. Dance!
5. Molly
6. Do It Your Way
7. In The Red
8. Fear Of Death
9. Amarillion
10. The Pretender
11. Back In The Seventies
12. Not Me
13. New Days Dawn
Kitsuné Maison Compilation 7
May 28, 2009 Posted by Eva at 1:24 pm
The seventh Kitsuné Maison Compilation is here: the lucky one!
A constantly expanding network of new discoveries, about to blow-up talents, hopes, loves, happiness and hedonism, the Maison is not so much an exclusive world, but a welcoming space open to all winds.
Kitsune Maison Compilation 7 brings together new tracks and exclusive remixes including La Roux’s In For The Kill (Lifelike Remix), Phoenix’s Lisztomania (Classixx Version), Two Door Cinema Club’s Something Good Can Work, The Golden Filter’s Favourite Things, autoKratz’ Always More (Yuksek Remix), and Men’s Make It Reverse. Plus local Australian talent in the form of Beni’s Fringe Element.
As the Kitsuné sieve keeps on searching for gold and finding it, we hope that these discoveries put you in as good a mood as they did us. Here’s the seventh Kitsune Maison: the lucky one!
Kitsuné Maison Compilation 7 is out now on etcetc. To buy it, click here.
Track Listing
1. Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work
2. We Have Band - Time After Time (feat. Yulia)
3. Phoenix - Lisztomania (Classixx Version)
4. Crystal Fighters – Xtatic Truth
5. The Golden Filter - Favourite Things
6. La Roux - In For The Kill (Lifelike Remix)
7. Beni - Fringe Element (Short Like Me Edit)
8. autoKratz – Always More (Yuksek Remix)
9. 80kidz – Miss Mars
10. James Yuill – This Sweet Love (Prins Thomas Sneaky Edit)
11. MEN - Make It Reverse
12. Chew Lips – Solo
13. Chateau Marmont – Beagle
14. Heartsrevolution – 薔薇と彼女の王子
15. Delphic - Counterpoint (Delphic’s En Route Mix)
16. — Encore—
17. Maybb – Touring in NY (Short Tour Edit)
18. Renaissance Man – Rythym
19. Tanlines - Bejan
Hardships! Spectrum Album of the Week…
May 20, 2009 Posted by Eva at 2:25 pm
Not only does she possess the highest cheekbones in pop – Jenny Wilson has also been awarded one of Australia’s highest musical accolades: Hardships! was Bernard Zuel’s Album of the Week in SMH’s Spectrum.
“This is an unconventionally shaped record, peppered with moments that cast shadows of disturbance you can never completely make out but always prodding you with its attractive qualities…this is smart and very attractive pop music…”
Read the rest of the wonderful review here.
Ted & Francis EP
May 12, 2009 Posted by Eva at 12:01 pm
What happens when two suburban Australian boys meet at a young age and bond over a shared love for all things polar as well as New Order bass-lines? They decide they must add ‘&’ into the equation to form a union between their alias names, of course.
Ted & Francis (”T&F” as they are known for short) present a world where introspective pop never seemed so exciting. With this EP release, plans for ‘mega-rad’ tours, plus an album in the works, the sweet cuddly lure of Ted & Francis will win over the most cynical of us all.
The epitome of arctic cool with a tropical pop bent, they are one band not to be missed especially for lovers of partnerships in any type/form/shape or height. In recent months the boys have played alongside Lost Valentinos in-between having their remixes of artists like Empire of the Sun featured on blogs including Bigstereo and Ohh! Crapp. Their new EP features the beautiful Erlend as well as the world-renowned I Wish I Was A Polar Bear, last heard on 2008’s Kitsuné Maison 6 compilation.
The Ted & Francis EP is released digitally on 15 May through etcetc.
Tracklisting:
- Erlend
- Think About Enough
- Livings Lost
- I Wish I Was a Polar Bear
Fever Ray: coming to America…
May 11, 2009 Posted by Eva at 12:27 pm
“Andersson holds her audience utterly spellbound” – Drowned In Sound
“…pulls you inexorably into the darkness of her world” - The Guardian
After a string of acclaimed live shows around Europe, Fever Ray is heading over to the US and Canada in September/October. Venues will include NYC’s iconic Webster Hall, where Andersson’s other project, The Knife, played two sold out dates for their US debut.
Karin will be supported by a 4 piece band, with visuals masterminded by Swedish multimedia artist Andreas Nilsson who designed The Knife’s live show and directed the creepy video for If I Had a Heart.
USA and Canada Tour Dates:
Sept 28 – Webster Hall, NYC, NY
Sept 29 – Webster Hall, NYC, NY
Oct 1 – Metropolis, Montreal
Oct 2 – Kool Haus, Toronto
Oct 3 – Metro, Chicago
Oct 5 – Grand Ballroom, San Francisco
Oct 7 – Henry Fonda Theater, Los Angeles
Is Grum the next Lindsay Lohan?
May 8, 2009 Posted by Eva at 10:36 am
With more blog coverage than a disaster prone starlet, Grum is extremely hot property!
For proof, just take a look at: Getweird, Discobelle, Discodust, Doinmusic, Cockygold, Vainzine, Wedoitright, Goingotherplaces, Hiphoppopandrnbstop, Pocketfullofpaper, Popwreckoning, Urbanfabric, Pimpsrunfree, Deathelectro, Straightnochasa, Antibeta, Upupndown, Electronicrumours, Oddlyamazing, The Purple Rhino, We Are Binary, Red Threat, The House Effect, Indie Music Speaker, Hedonista, Slept Through Disco, The Passing Static, Evasee, Coppertallis, Atari Cool Kids, Planet Shhh, Club Lounge Den, Remix Rater, Fck da Beat, and Kslog.
With this much online interest, is it only a matter of time before this Scottish purveyor of addictive electro is spotted canoodling with Samantha Ronson? Yes, we say…
To hear what all the fuss is about click here (via Discodust).
Lost Valentinos UK Dates
May 6, 2009 Posted by Eva at 11:23 am
They mercilessly conquered Australian audiences at their recent Sydney and Melbourne Serio Single Launches. Now, with their sights set firmly on Europe, these Valentinos are anything but ‘lost’.
Over the coming months they’ll be playing some of the sizzling-est dates imaginable across the UK, Spain and Belgium. And July brings a spot on the hottest-of-hot Splendour in the Grass lineup.
With this many dates you’ll have no excuse for not seeing them in the flesh. Make sure you wear something nice.
Europe Dates:
8 May – Dummy Party – The Queen of Hoxton, London, UK
13 May – Clash Magazine Party – Hoxton Bar, London, UK
15 May – Les Nuits Botanique – Brussels, Belgium
16 May – Ruby Lounge – Manchester, UK
21 May – Yo Yo, Nottinghill Art Club – Nottinghill, UK
22 May – Razzamatazz – Barcelona, Spain
23 May – Sound City – Liverpool, UK
29 May – White Light – London, UK
Hardships!
May 1, 2009 Posted by Eva at 1:13 pm
“If you have to describe ‘Hardships!’ I’ll tell you that it’s a collection of modern work songs for all times. That it contains shimmering in-preparedness-poetry and raw R’n'B, in a way you never heard it before. I want ‘Hardships!’ to feel simple as salt and pepper on your tongue. And sparkling as a burning matchstick that you can burn your fingertips upon! This record is about motherhood, and the fight within!”
Jenny Wilson released her celebrated debut Love And Youth in 2005 with the hit singles Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward and Summertime, The Roughest Time. The album received several awards, including the P3 Guld award for Pop in 2005, and attracted extensive international attention leading to much appreciated tours of Scandinavia, Europe and Australia.
In 2006, after the birth of her second child, Wilson began plotting her sophomore release Hardships! Like her Scandanavian contemporaries Annie, Robyn, and Fever Ray, Wilson was wholly responsible for the sound of the album, recording and producing Hardships! in her own The Gold Medal Studio in Stockholm. Wilson also decided to launch her own label after releasing her debut on The Knife’s Rabid Records, so she established Gold Medal Recordings under exclusive licence to Playground Music.
With the iconic quirky pop sensibilities we grew to love on Love And Youth, Hardships! is a joyous, poignant and idiosyncratic collection of mature pop melodies. Described as “absorbing” by Uncut and “fantastically enjoyable” by Dazed and Confused, Hardships! is indicative of a shift in contemporary pop writing towards more considered and intelligent production.
With guest appearances from Scandinavia’s finest including Mapei, El Perro Del Mar, and Simone Rubi, this is
an album that is worth the reward of repeated listens.
Hardships! is out now on etcetc.
Tracklisting:
- The Path
- Like A Fading Rainbow
- Clattering Hooves
- The Wooden Chair
- Porcelain Castle
- Anchor Made Of Gold
- Bad Waters
- Only Here For The Fight
- Pass Me The Salt
- Motherhood
- Hardships
- We Had Everything
- Strings Of Grass